News and Notes

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 20, 1900

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 77, No. 8.

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FOR WEEK ENDING FEBRUARY 17, 1900.

—The American flag has been raised over the Tatanes and Calagan islands.

—The United States Isthmian Canal Commission has arrived at Managua, Nicaragua.

—Tuesday, February 6, there was a total of 408 deaths from the plague, at Bombay, India.

—For the first time, February 12, the Chicago post-office observed Lincoln’s birthday as a legal holiday.

—A bill was introduced in the Senate, February 13, providing for a government cable to the Philippines, via Alaska.

—The dowager empress of China has abolished the study of European sciences in the schools throughout her empire.

—A dispatch states that “the mutiny of the Sudanese troops at Khartum [Egypt] is assuming serious proportions.”

—To prevent Russian control of trade in Persia, the Germans may join with Great Britain, and abandon interest in the Boers.

—Blizzards are raging in the Western States, the thermometer falling twenty-five degrees in as many minutes, at Springer, N. M.

—The laws of Japan prohibit women from becoming publishers or editors, as “the discharge of such work by females is neither becoming nor desirable.”

—A Berlin dispatch says that Dr. Leyds, the Transvaal agent, leaves that city very much dissatisfied because of the refusal of Emperor William to receive him. He will next go to St. Petersburg.

—Sunday is observed as a day of rest by mutual agreement between the besiegers and defenders of Mafeking, South Africa. The British indulge in cricket matches, and a band makes music in the market-square.

—The temperature dropped fifty degrees in fifteen hours at Chicago, February 8. This was the greatest fall in the city’s history. The wind blew sixty-two miles an hour, a velocity that has been exceeded but once.

—Destitution and deaths from starvation are on the increase in the famine-stricken district of India, in spite of the gigantic efforts for relief made by the British government, which is now feeding 4,000,000 natives. There will be no relief through the crops inside of four months.

—Terrible snowstorms prevail throughout Spain.

—A nautical “knot” is 6,080 feet; a mile, 5,280 feet.

—The Marquis of Queensbury died in London, February 2.

—The poor health of the shah of Persia causes his friends great uneasiness.

—Influenza is epidemic in Italy, and special prayers are offered in the churches for deliverance.

—The Maharajah of Jaipur, India, has given 100,000 rupees to the British South African war fund.

—Four “Christian scientists” are under arrest in Lincoln, Neb., for “violation of the health laws.”

—Lord Roberts has asked for 90,000 additional men to assist him in British operations in South Africa.

—Adalbert S. Hay, new United States consul to the Transvaal, has presented his credentials at Pretoria.

—About 600,000 trees are annually planted by Swedish school children, under the guidance of their teachers.

—Over 300 sparrows fell before the unerring aim of Battle Creek young lads last week.—Battle Creek Journal.

—In time of war, France is prepared to put 370 out of 1,000 of her population, in the field; Germany, 310; Russia, 210.

—In the effort to stamp out the plague in Honolulu, the Chinese quarters were burned, rendering 4,000 persons homeless.

—Prof. Herman Von Holst, of the University of Chicago, owing to precarious health, will go to Europe for a prolonged stay.

—It is said that the Boer forts at Pretoria are practically denuded of artillery, ninety guns having been sent to the front.

—Chili and Japan have completed a commercial treaty, and a steamer line will soon be established between the two countries.

—It is said that influenza is spreading throughout Germany, and that in Berlin there is hardly a family without sufferers therefrom.

—Employees of the Canadian Pacific Railway will give half a day’s pay to the patriotic fund for Canadian soldiers and their families.

—Monday, February 12, was celebrated quite generally throughout the United States, commemorating the birthday of Abraham Lincoln.

—The Independent says that “more than two hundred former officers of the French army are fighting on the side of the Boers,” in South Africa.

—According to official statistics transmitted to Congress by Secretary of War Root, there are in the United States 10,343,152 men available for military duty.

—At a recent meeting in the Royal Albert Hall, London, 10,000 persons protested against the use of the mass and confessional in the Church of England.

—Russia’s recent loan to Persia will be repaid by Persia’s giving Russia control of the customs. This virtually gives Persia over to Russian domination.

—The United States army appropriation bill for the coming year calls for an expenditure of $111,700,364, against $90,080,104 called for in the bill for the current year.

—United States Brigadier-General Kobbe has occupied the islands of Samar and Leyte, of the Philippine Group, and several new hemp ports are now opened in the islands.

—The Italian embassy has threatened to break diplomatic relations unless a young Italian girl, in the harem of a Turkish officer, is returned to the embassy in Constantinople.

—February 3 the Ways and Means Committee of the United States House of Representatives decided that the term “United States” applies only to the States that constitute the Federal Union.

—English and Japanese capitalists have secured the franchise for the first electric street-car line in China. The road will be three miles long, and will run through the most densely populated street in the world.

—The British, American, French, Italian, and German ministers have addressed a note to their foreign offices in China, asking that measures be taken by the Chinese authorities for the safety of missionaries.

—Louise Froebel, widow of the founder of the kindergarten system of teaching, has just died in Hamburg, Germany, at the age of eighty-five years. Froebel himself died in 1852, having, for many years, received only ridicule for advocating a system which, since his death, has become so widely used that his memory is held sacred by many nations.

—Advocates and opponents of woman suffrage were given a hearing before Congress, February 13. Mrs. Dodge, of New York City, anti-suffragist, presented the following conclusions: “We know that women are physically unable to perform the duties which men are compelled to perform under every well-regulated government. The enforcement of law involves not only the performance of jury duty, but in the last emergency the employment of military force, in neither of which can women discharge the responsibility of actual service.”

—By a $175,000 fire in Chicago, more than 400 people were recently thrown out of employment.

—The United States will hereafter issue bound books of postage stamps for convenience in warm weather.

—The strike in the Cramp shipyard, Philadelphia, in progress since last August, was declared off February 5.

—The Franco-American reciprocity treaty is arousing keen anxiety in Japan, the silk producers being especially alarmed.

—John D. Rockefeller has resigned the presidency of the Standard Oil Company of Ohio, his reasons being “the state of his health, and a desire to avoid being drawn into legal investigations of the company’s affairs.”

—Queen Victoria, who expends about $15,000 on Christmas toys for her grandchildren and the children of the court officials, each year, gave explicit instructions that no war toys were to be included in the gifts last Christmas.

—Prof. Henry A. Hazen, of the United States weather bureau, who was recently fatally injured by a fall from his bicycle, had been identified with the weather service of this government since 1881, and was regarded as an efficient forecaster.

—The year 1900 A. D. finds 856,000,000 of the human race still in heathen darkness. More than two thirds of the race are without any fixed hope for eternity. There are 170,000,000 Mohammedans, 190,000,000 Catholics, 84,000,000 Greek Church, 8,000,000 Jews, and only 116,000,000 Protestants.

—It is believed that England is about to transfer its far Eastern naval base from Wei-Hai-Wei, China, to Gaya Bay, Borneo. The British North Borneo Company will construct a railway sixty miles in length, connecting the harbor of Gaya with Brunei Bay, where coal exists in large quantities.

—It is reported from Lisbon, Portugal, under date of February 13, that the king has signed a protocol of a secret offensive and defensive alliance with England, with the approval of the leaders of the militant parties of both countries. If true, this may affect the neutrality of Delagoa Bay, and, hence, the advantage the Boers have taken from such neutrality.

—In the REVIEW for February 6 we stated that “a dispatch” said that “John Alexander Dowie has suffered a stroke of paralysis, and that his recovery is considered doubtful. The fact of his illness is being studiously withheld from his adherents.” Since then we have learned from persons who know, that what that dispatch said is false. Now we say, upon authority, that “he has the usual health, and preaches every Sunday.”

—It is said, by the Literary Digest, that “France is beginning to doubt the wisdom of holding international exhibitions, it being held that, in the anxiety to promote their success, it has often been found necessary to surrender political advantages. Some writers think the Fashoda matter would not have ended as it did were it not for the fear of injuring the exposition soon to open.” It is also said that “the amount invested in this great show is so large that it is thought its failure would be more disastrous than the collapse of the Panama Canal.”